The only ones who win in situations like this are the parasitic lawyers, who are swarming all over this carcass.

This is how it works. The lawyers will be successful in clawing back some of the payments made to investors. But guess who gets paid FIRST in bankruptcies?! The lawyers. That includes lawyers who are bankrupcty trustees, lawyers who represent plantiffs, lawyers who represent defendents, etc. After all the lawyer constituencies get paid there'll be little or no funds left for the creditors of Madoff's firm (the real victims in this massive fraud).

See how the article says that $20 million of the $33 million recovered in the Bayou fraud case went to legal fees, and the decision was being appealed (which means that EVEN MORE legal fees are eating away at the remaining $13 million). When it's all said and done, nothing will be left for the creditors. Lawyers on both sides will see to that.

The whole corporate bankruptcy system is a massive lawyer enrichment scheme, put in place by Congress, which is comprised mostly by lawyers. Allegedly, the bankruptcy code was established to give fair and beneficial treatment to the creditors, but the end results are far, far away from that!

So what happens if you don't give back this "Clawback" money? Or, you spent it all?
I've never heard or read of a man in a Federal Penitentiary for having withdrawn, paid taxes on, and kept investment profits in an investment scheme that, years later,went bad w/out his complicity or knowledge.
Have you?